Open Illinois.org

by Brian Costin

Liberty Leader Allen Skillicorn is resident of East Dundee and has started a new website called Grassroots Revolution. On the site Allen is compiling Village of East Dundee financial documents that aren’t available on the Village’s website.

Allen says, “Since the village of East Dundee will not share financial information with the public, Grassroots Revolution has used the Freedom of Information Act to open up the books.”

Allen is also a volunteer for the Illinois Policy Institute’s Local Transparency Project and is conducting an audit of transparency levels of all government agencies within Dundee Township.

Why is transparency so important? In this blog post on NorthwestInsider.net Allen analyzed East Dundee’s last few budgets, through his transparency initiative, and found an astounding growth in the size of government.

In 2007, East Dundee Budget was $3,961,411. In 2009, the Village’s Budget was $6,999,028 for an increase of 177 percent in just 2 years! That’s growth rate is even more shocking considering the recession and a drop in Sales Tax revenue for the Village.

Kudos to Allen for increasing government transparency and being a watchdog for the taxpayers of East Dundee.

For anyone looking to promote transparency in your home community please contact me at bcostin@illinoispolicy.org for help.